This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. Primary support for the subproject and the subproject's principal investigator may have been provided by other sources, including other NIH sources. The Total Cost listed for the subproject likely represents the estimated amount of Center infrastructure utilized by the subproject, not direct funding provided by the NCRR grant to the subproject or subproject staff. In her role as Chair of the International Activities Committee of the American Chemical Society, Prof. Costello served on the organizing committee for the second Conference on Research and Education in the Middle East, held on Malta in November 2005. More than seventy participants from almost all the countries of the Middle East participated, as did six Nobel prize winners. Support was obtained from the ACS, the Royal Society of Chemistry, the German Chemical Society, IUPAC and several foundations and private donors. The third meeting in the series was also sponsored by these agencies and took place in Istanbul in December 2007. Once again, most of the countries of the Middle East were represented and five Nobel prize winners were active participants. Prof. Costello served on the organizing committee, was a co-organizer of the workshop on Medicinal Chemistry and presented research results from BUSM. In November 2009, the fourth Malta Conference was held in Amman, Jordan. Again, Prof. Costello served on the Organizing Committee and had responsibilities related to the Medicinal Chemistry workshop, in particular. Six Nobelists participated;Prince Hassan of Jordan also gave a lecture and enthusiastically participated in discussions. A workshop for graduate students preceded the meeting and the schedule allowed overlap with the opening of the Conference, so students had the opportunity for interactions with the delegates and Nobelists. The fifth Conference is currently being organized for December 2011. It will be held at UNESCO headquarters in Paris, as the closing event of the International Year of Chemistry. A nonprofit corporation has now been established to manage fundraising and other organizational matters for the Malta Conferences.